


Paradise City

by LadyFern



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: A New Life, Full Crew, GTA V AU, Hurt/Comfort, On the Run, One Big Happy Family, Other, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-05-22 13:14:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6080739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyFern/pseuds/LadyFern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All she had wanted was a little money on the side. A quick delivery here, a transaction there and boom! Job done. But when Valerie catches the eye of one of Los Santos' top dogs, (and not our favourite ones either) a storm of trouble unravels around her as she tries to get the obsessive man hunting her off her tail. Without a little help along the way, she's gonna learn fast that escaping from him is gonna be one hell of a job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wrong Way

Gavin knew that he was bad with directions. The others made sure that he’d never forget about it. He’s defended himself time and time again against their onslaughts but it never held up. Nope, someone else was always berated for it. It was always someone had given him bad directions or it wasn't his fault for missing the street sign, and how the hell was anybody suppose to be able to identify which direction was South at the drop of a hat? What was he, a bloody compass? No, he wasn’t to blame for those incidents, no way.

This time he for sure wasn’t at fault. Well, by much at least.

After taking a corner too fast and running head first into a guard, he was sure the others would have to believe him this time. In the scuffle that ensued Gavin’s earpiece and only form of communication between him and the team was knocked away by a sharp blow to his jaw. Although he managed to take out his opponent, he had to leave the device behind, running at the sound of footsteps moving behind him. In the hope that taking random turns would mean losing the group behind him, Gavin soon found himself completely lost. Later that night he would yell to the others about how the guard wasn’t supposed to be there but for now he could only curse his own lack of co-ordinance at finding a fucking exit in the large building.

Seizing a deserted office as a chance to stop and listen for pursuers, he was met with only the sound of his own panting in his ears. He couldn’t even hear much of the happenings he knew to be taking place outside. His team were many things but quiet was not one of them. Now with no real need to rush he took the time to start carefully peering around corners. Being blind meant needing to be thorough so as to not meet any more surprises as he made his way through the hallways. His pace was slow and grueling but he did not falter.

What he was really hoping for right now was to find a staircase. After checking out the top floor offices for anything worthwhile he was supposed to follow the directions given to him before hand and make it down to the first floor to meet up with Ryan. At the very least if he had gotten lost Jeremy was to be keeping an eye on them through the surveillance cameras linked up back at base and be within reach at the other end of his earpiece. With that plan shot he was left with only luck guiding him. That or hope that the radio he had somehow nicked off the guard earlier in their scuffle would come in handy. He didn’t really know how it had ended up in his hand as he ran but he kept it on mute for now, not risking turning it on and being overheard as he traversed the building.

With no signs to guide him and having not bothered to study this area of the blueprints when he had the chance, Gavin quickly found himself losing his patience as he kept finding more offices and hallways around each bend. Soon he was thinking that he might have to find a window to which somehow get his team’s attention from. Maybe he’ll save that as a backup plan, or, more preferably, a very desperate last resort. 

Turned out to be not needed as after cutting through yet again another office he thankfully found himself in front of a set of double doors that, after investigating, were indeed stairs leading downward. Excitedly he all but flew down the stairs only to find his only way forward being a solitary door. After still not hearing any of the havoc he knew his team was inflicting outside, even now while being on the first floor, Gavin decided to risk turning on the guard’s radio to see if he might snatch something of how the others were doing. 

Crouching into the small gap under the stairs, it being his only form of cover, he flicked the volume up ever so slightly on the device and held it close to his ear. Rough orders were being yelled/whispered out, much of which Gavin couldn’t really make too much sense of in regard to his currently position. From what he could tell though was that the Southern warehouses were in flames and they were ordering their main forces to move up to the other end of the compound, right where Gavin knew the guys would be waiting for them, as planned. Gavin was glad to hear at least that that part of plan was working and hadn’t gone to shit.

He continued listening for few more minutes, staying to hear the enemy squabble over where best to move their units before he grudgingly gave up on the idea of hearing something worthwhile about his team. Turning the radio back to mute and into his pocket he ducked out of his hiding spot to move to the lone door. As smoothly and silently as he could he turned the handle and pushed the door open, cautious as he scoured the dimly lit room in hope of a proper escape route but instead was flat-out stunned by what he found inside. 

The lack of proper lighting did nothing to hide the recognizable form of a woman being savagely hung from the ceiling. Chained up by her wrists with her arms taut above her head, she laid limp, slumped over and unconscious. The length of the chains caused her body to rest in an unnerving back arch against the ground, her hips just barely brushing the floor while her legs were splayed out at an angle behind her. A rat’s nest of hair on her head, she wore only a matching set of lacy pale underwear that might have been arousing brand new but now only hung filthy and far too loose on her shrunken form. Her body held many cuts, some wrapped in dirty gauze while others were left to simply to bleed and scab. Bruises and dirt covered her head to toe, the weak and flickering glow of the sole light bulb hanging in the room made it hard to differentiate which on her body was which. The longer it took to tell the less unharmed skin could be seen.

Gavin could only stand in the doorway flabbergasted. Stone-cold, unbelieving marveled and full on flabbergasted.

Their plan had been simple: take down a pesky gang in a neighboring city that Geoff had gotten fed up with and be home in time for dinner. Their target wasn’t anything special, a medium sized troop who mainly dealt with drugs and the occasional weapons convoy, hardly a threat. The only reason they were getting hammered down at all was because they were too stupid to listen to Geoff’s warning of backing off their turf, so it was determined that an in-person visit would be best. Gavin himself drew up the profiles on the higher ups in the crew, three men being the so called ‘brains’ of the operations, who he had collected the basic info of while the plans were being formed. That’s what had Gavin confused. He had enough info on each of them to practically write out their memoirs, knowing exactly what type of person, and, better yet, what kind of crooks they were. Abusive homes, in and out of juvie since their teens, massive debts and ex-wives, all with an extensive list of mainly minor charges with the extent of some larger accounts of fraud and assault thrown in the mix. It was the standard fare for these types of guys. But Gavin was good at his job, being a ‘people person’ as he called it and he knew exactly which one of them would crack under the right kind of pressure, which one was likely to try striking up a deal against his own in an effort to save his skin, and which one was likely stupid enough to get himself killed in their main onslaught. That’s what had Gavin stumped really: what had he missed to not see this?

None of them had caused a red flag to go up for being psychotic and cruel enough to be capable of something like this. He hadn’t found evidence of them being involved with any noteworthy connections and he sure as hell knew they wouldn’t have had the manpower or balls to step anywhere near a sex or human trafficking ring, so Gavin could only wonder as to how the hell this chick had ended up in a room being chained like a dog. 

Gavin’s pondering was caught short however as a low rumbling was both heard and felt throughout the compound, bringing him back to the current events happening outside. He drew out the radio again, no longer worried about being overheard as he was critically aware that he was still in the main building and separated from his team. A bad position to be in knowing what they had in store for the idiots’ head building. Voices bled through loudly from the radio much more chaotically than before, Gavin assuming because of the ambush that had been set for them and focused on trying to hear anything useful. 

“Goddammit, move up Brinkley! Take your guys up the left side! We’re just ahead of you so see if you can get a shot ou--UGH!” The sharp sound of gunfire cut through the chattering noise and Gavin was left listening to an eerie silent moment of static air before a new, much more familiar voice came through. 

“Not to tell you what to do or anything, but I so would not move up that way Brinkley. Just saying.”

Ryan.

More gunfire came and Gavin could make out the sound of his teammate being far too amused by this ‘Brinkley’s tactics and fired his weapon without care for the men he was taking down. It was a few moments of gunfire followed by a pause and the sounds of an explosion coming through the radio’s small speaker before Ryan spoke again.

“Told ya so.”

In any other situation Gavin might have rolled his eyes at his teammate’s odd sense of sarcasm but for the moment he was much more preoccupied in getting his attention. He needed to get out of here.

“Ryan? Ryan, can you hear me?” The moment of dead air was caused more by surprise than anything else but it felt much too long for Gavin, unsettling his already on edge nerves.

“Gavin!? What the hell--?”

“Explain later. You gotta help me out.”

“Your ass was supposed to be here nearly ten minutes ago, dude what the fuck?”

“Uhhh…”

“Gavin, where are you?” Ryan’s voice grew stern at this and made Gavin stumble in giving his answer. Ryan cut him off though with a groan, his assumptions having come up correct (God be damned if he didn’t like being right all the time), and he suddenly found himself not in the mood for his stupid crew member’s antics. 

“God-fucking-dammit, Gavin! Really!?”

“It was a mishmash of shit, alright?”

“Jesus Christ, just hold on a sec Gav. Hey J, you hearing this?” 

Ryan spoke to Jeremy now, trying to find eyes on their missing member and with his attention away Gavin couldn’t help but look toward the woman he’d found. She didn’t look to be moving anytime soon and Gavin couldn’t help the knot settling in his stomach: what happens to her now? 

They had plans to blow the building ‘sky-high’ style once they were clear of the building but with her sudden appearance he knew he wouldn’t be able to just leave her for dead. He wasn’t that cruel. But at the same he knew he couldn’t just bring her along either. Though clearly too thin she looked to be tall for a woman, built more like an athlete than a model and not being an overly built man himself Gavin wasn’t sure how he’d manage to get carry her back to the evac point on his own, let alone defend himself should he come across any wandering personals. Not to mention the shackles enclosing her wrists looked like they needed a key to be opened with, leaving her firmly stuck. Uncertainty filled him quickly as he weighed out his equally shitty options.

“Gavin?”

“Uh, yeah, here.”

“Jeremy can’t see you on any of his feeds. Can you move your position at all?”

“Yeah, hold on.” Gavin turned and quickly left the dim room, taking a few steps up the stairs to the landing between floors where he’d seen a camera earlier. “How ‘bout now?”

“Right, he’s got you. I’ll talk you through getting you up here an--” 

“No.” The word was out of Gavin’s mouth before he could really stop and think about it but now that it was he felt content with his choice. Ryan may kill him for it later but at least his conscious was clear. He had no problem with killing pricks who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him or his crew, that was one thing, but to leave an innocent chained up to die was another. 

“No? I’m sorry, you do realize this place is about to become part of the mile high club, right? And not the good kind either.”

“I know, okay, but--ugh. Just get Jeremy to lead you here, okay?”

“Why?”

It was with a heavy sigh that Gavin answered him. Doing this was gonna suck. He knew that and he knew the others were gonna bitch up a storm but as he turned to look back towards the still open door he knew that he couldn’t just run.

“Because we have a problem.”


	2. Shots Fired

Moments of clarity were a rare thing for Geoff. Most times he was too preoccupied to really enjoy the airy feeling when it drifted over him and was forced to simply push them aside when they transpired. This time was different though. This time he actually got to relish in the odd sensation that came with discerning yourself from one’s surroundings so as to see the bigger picture, to take in what is really there. And boy, what a picture ir was.

Geoff stood leaning with his back to one of many wooden crates near a large open mouth of a hangar. The small pile of crates was set just to the side of the opening, a few single crates having been pushed up and in an arc formation so as to give him and his team cover as needed. To his left and right were two large warehouses and directly in front of him across a space of open pavement was a office building, maybe only reaching about ten floors in height. Trees surrounded the edges of the buildings due to how far north of the city the compound stood, countryside being all around them. Behind the office building and trees Geoff could see the glow and rising smoke of the other warehouse they had set ablaze while moving into their current location. Here Geoff and his team were in a prime position to take out their enemy with ease and it was with great enthusiasm that they did so.

Ray was closest to him on his left, taking cover behind a crate to reload his grenade launcher before standing and sending out another round, laughter trailing between rounds as he took the time to watch each shot and where it landed. Michael was a little ways past him on the his other side, firing blindly and making loud remarks to which Geoff couldn't help but smile at. He knew Jack was off to the side somewhere, trusting the younger lads to handle themselves well enough for a few minutes to let him speak with the others back at base about their evac.

And there Geoff stood smack-dab in the middle of it, rifle leaning up against his shoulder as he stood with ease and just watched. Explosions wrought the air every few moments, courtesy of Ray, and Michael’s laughter soon joined higher into the fray as it seems he'd pried open a damaged crate, discovering a heavy mini-gun packaged neatly inside and had gleefully hoisted it to his hip to fire at anything in sight. Explosions rocked the air even more now. Geoff could have been firing away like the other two and having just as much fun, that’s what he should have been doing, but instead he held his position at the back letting the breeze carrying the scent of smoke wash over him. He had taken out his earpiece to enjoy his moment to the fullest, not wanting Jeremy’s chatter bugging him. It was moments like this one, watching fire spread from building to building and the sound of bullets whizzing by in his ears and the pleasant mix of adrenaline and pre-job drinks mixing to practically make his blood hum in his veins that Geoff found himself craving more and more. Moments like these were absolutely perfect…

“Uhhh, Geoff?”

And there it went.

Geoff tilted his head around to see Jack emerging from behind the stack of crates, stuffing a phone into a pocket as he approached. Geoff hurriedly returned his earpiece, dismissing the voices of Ryan and Jeremy as he did so, and nodded at Jack as he came to stand next to him.

“We good on our evac?”

Jack nodded to him, but was clearly nervous about something, Geoff picking up on his hesitance almost instantly.

“What’s happened?”

“You took your earpiece out again, didn’t you?”

Geoff couldn’t help rolling his eyes at that, having been doing worse jobs just fine without an earpiece long before Jack was even added to the crew. “Only for a minute or two. What I miss?”

“We found Gavin.”

“Fucking finally! Where’s the little prick been hiding at?”

“Ran into some trouble in the main building, lost his earpiece, Ryan’s still there trying to sort it out.”

Geoff turned now to look fully at Jack. He didn’t like the tone Jack spoke with about their common British friend, it usually ending up being very expensive for Geoff.

“What’s he done now?”

                                                                                                                ~

  
  
Gavin sat at the bottom of the stairs as he waited for Ryan, one leg bouncing, constantly passing the radio back and forth between his hands as he anxiously waited for his teammate to arrive. The door to the room/prison was still open, no noise coming from the woman held inside, but Gavin found he could hardly look at the door as he sat waiting, choosing to instead look down at his feet. It had only been after he finished his conversation with Ryan had he noticed the pungent smell coming from the room and was forced to his seat on the stairs as he tried to breathe deeply and remove the scent from his nose. Ryan was on his way and Gavin was putting most of his hope in him.

Gavin only had another minute or so of silence before hearing the approach of someone on the floors above him. His usually silent steps reverberated on the hard concrete floor and walls causing Gavin to hear his teammate much more quickly than usual. Ryan had a habit of sneaking up on him, thought it was fun to watch Gavin jump as he’d appear out of the air right behind him. For once Gavin was glad that this time he wouldn’t be able to sneak up on him. He wasn’t much in the mood for surprises.

Gavin stood when Ryan appeared at the top of the stairs, no wonderment at all as to how blood had ended up splattered on his jeans and boots. A little managed to make it on to his leather jacket as well, the drying red standing out against the brighter blue stripes.

“Find any keys?” Gavin asked in slight suspense.

Ryan nodded and as he reached Gavin’s level he pulled out a small loop holding four or five keys out of his pocket as proof.

“Found’em on that Brinkley dude or whatever. What they for?”

Gavin only took them from Ryan’s hand before turning and, with a deep breath, heading to stand next to the open doorway.

“They’re for this." Gavin waited for Ryan’s reaction as he came to stand beside him and peered inside.

“Holy shit.”

Gavin only nodded. Ryan seemed just as shocked as he had been, or at least he assumes so as the mask took away Gavin’s ability to read his face properly. But from what he could see, the wide eyes and tense shoulders, whatever Ryan had been expecting it hadn’t been this.

Ryan looked in at the girl with confused eyes, and couldn’t help but feel bad for her as he took in her appearance. The dried blood on her wrists indicated that she’d been chained up a while, the bruises on her ribs looked bad, broken at the very least and might even be causing something to be punctured, and one of her legs seemed to have a break at mid calf that made Ryan wince just looking at it. God only knows where she’s from. Trafficking rings ran deep enough that for all he knew she could have been from the other side of the world.

“So what do we do?”

Ryan tore his eyes away from the girl to look at Gavin, and when he did so he saw the uncertainty in his eyes and understood why Gavin had asked to be found rather than leave his position. Gavin wasn’t good at dealing with the innocent bystanders. He was. Not really by choice but still, this was his call.

Ryan contemplated for a moment before bringing a hand to his earpiece.

"Jeremy, do you have eyes on us?"

"Negative. I saw you on the stairs with Gav but there doesn't seem to be any feeds past that."

"Really? You can't see us or what's in this room?"

"What room?"

Ryan was surprised by this. No cameras watching over it and he bet that a second look at the blueprints they had gone over for the heist wouldn't show any sign of this room existing. Interested, Ryan wanted to ask more questions but knew that now was not the time.

"Right, well we got a hostage situation here. Gonna need you to guide us back up to regroup with the others. Can you tell Geoff we're bringing a guest to the party?"

"Oh I'm sure he's gonna be happy about that."

Ryan rolled his eyes lightly at Jeremy's grumbling before speaking back to Gavin again.

“How do you know if one of those keys will even work?”

“No clue, thought it better than not trying at all,” Gavin shrugged before tipping his head forward. “Hold her while I take a crack at the cuffs, yeah?”

Ryan had no argument and could only comply, moving to kneel by the woman's side. One arm under her chest and the other wrapped around her waist, Ryan was ready for her weight to be released as Gavin went straight to the cuffs. It was a quiet few moments of Gavin tinkering away at them, and on the third key he tried he was pleased to hear the metal clink of the cuffs releasing and the woman sagged into Ryan's arms.

Once free of her restraints Ryan was careful about moving the girl into a suitable position in his arms that wouldn't put too much pressure onto any of her wounds and she ended up being perched in the crook of one arm leaning against him, his other arm free to hold his pistol as the shotgun he carried had gone to Gavin. Making sure the girl was secured and with a nod to his crew mate, Ryan started back for the stairs.

"Geoff is gonna love this."


	3. Give Me a Name

Gavin and Ryan had little trouble following Jeremy’s directions as they made their way up through the building, only having to pause occasionally at corners until Jeremy gave the all clear. Gavin was on point, shotgun raised in front of him, taking cues from Ryan who was keeping an eye out behind them. It was quiet inside, only the sounds of their footsteps squeaking on the floor were echoed in the empty halls. The silence didn’t last forever though as the closer they got to escaping the building the more outside sounds of destruction bled through the walls. Bodies littered the halls, splayed out or simply sat slumped over with smears of red or scorch marks on the walls. Some rooms fire had started to catch, filling the halls with the smell of smoke. Ryan’s path of destruction was pretty clear to follow. 

Upon glimpsing through a set of double doors hanging off their hinges and seeing the mass of bodies inside on fire, Gavin couldn’t help but throw some inquisitive glances over his shoulder at the man behind him. 

“Okay, what?” Ryan finally asked the next time Jeremy told them to keep still to check to the surrounding cameras for movement.

“Nothing,” Gavin said with a shrug, gesturing to their surroundings with his gun. “Just a bit much, ‘innit?” 

“Shut up! How else was I supposed to get shit done without you?” 

Gavin rolled his eyes at that, and at Ryan’s signal turned the corner, gun raised once again. They quickly crossed the hall to an electric door, one that after only a moment’s pause let out a buzzing sound and Ryan pushed it open. Gavin followed quickly, straightening out of his stance, glad to be finally outside.

The three surrounding warehouses were already ablaze, figures silhouetted in the light running about and the open pavement in front of them was littered with burning vehicles. Voices were shouting, guns were firing, and Gavin was glad to see that the enemy's forces weren’t completely wiped out. Yet. Ryan had stepped up in front of him, pistol in his back waistband, waving wildly with his free hand. The dark SUV that had previously been taking lazy laps around the pavement, two figures half hanging out the backseat windows as they fired machine guns wildly, was quick to notice and broke its loop to meet them. 

Tires screeched as it came to a halt in front of them, it’s passenger side and backseat door popping open. Jack stepped out of the front and he and Ryan together managed to maneuver the still unconscious woman from Ryan’s arms into the back seat. Jack followed in after her, shutting the door behind him. Ryan motioned to Gav to head to the trunk before getting in the front seat himself. As Gavin headed to the back he found the trunk opened for him, revealing a very smug Michael. 

“Hey boi,” Michael said as the Brit clambered into the space beside him and slammed the trunk shut. “Been shit stirring?”

“Shut up, Michael!”

Michael laughed at that and with a few hits to the ceiling they were off. Gavin and Michael both peered over the top of the backseat where Jack was already checking over the girl, Ray squeezed in across from him holding the first aid kit out for him. 

“Where did you find her, Ryan?” Jack asked muffledly, busy holding a packet of gauze with his teeth while his hands were tearing away at a filthy bandage on her arm. 

“I didn’t, Gavin did,” Ryan said, ducking slightly as his window shattered from a spray of bullets. “Look, can we talk about this later?”

“Yeah, later,” Geoff agreed from the driver’s seat, his focus solely on the road in front of him. “Hold on.”

They all braced themselves as best they could as Geoff floored it across the pavement, banking sharply into a mostly hidden side road crammed between two of the burning warehouses. Gavin and Michael both had a hard time keeping balance in the back as the dirt road got bumpier and bumpier, inclining away from the compound. They ended up a snickering, tangled mess of limbs, not managing to straighten themselves out until a few minutes later when the road smoothed out. Trees began thinning out around them before they emerged in a clearing a few miles east of the compound, the spot which would act as their evac point. Matt was already there with their chopper, their golden chariot awaiting them. 

In no time flat they had abandoned the car and piled into the chopper, Jack jumping in first before being handed the injured girl from Ryan. As soon as the door was shut behind Ray, Matt was pulling up on the controls and taking them to the air, trying to keep the aircraft relatively level considering the injured on board. The chopper raised steadily from the ground, rising until it stopped to hover several hundred feet off the ground. Jack, who had previously been checking on the girl’s pulse, looked around upon feeling the helicopter settle in the air. 

“Geoff, is now really the time?”

“Oh come on! What’s the point of all this if we don’t have front row seats to the grand finale?” Geoff answered from the cockpit, hands reaching up to discard his previous earpiece for the larger headset Matt was holding out for him. 

“She should see Caleb, I can’t do much here.”

“Is she stable?” Geoff asked, turning in his seat to look back at his team. Jack was kneeling over the girl on the floor of the helicopter, the others spread out in the seats around them. Ryan looked to have taken over the job of helping Jack, holding the first aid kit in his hands as Ray and the other Lads peered out the helicopter’s windows excitedly, chatting to themselves. 

“Yeah,” Jack said sitting back on his heels. “For now.”

“Then she’s fine,” Geoff dismissed, turning back and opening the laptop that had been in his seat waiting for him, pushing the mic on his headset closer to his mouth. “Lindsay, what’s your expected ETA?”

“Coming in hot in 15 seconds, Geoff. We’re online.” Lindsay’s voice was jerky in Geoff’s ear, drowned out by the background noise filtering in. Geoff tapped a few keys on the laptop till a window popped up, a camera feed coming in directly from Lindsay’s jet as it flew appeared on screen, the landscape speeding by as it locked on to the compound’s position.

“Target aquired, Boss.”

“Take ‘em out.” Slipping the headphones around his neck he shifted in his seat, craning his neck to get a better view as he spoke to his crew. 

“Enjoy the show, boys.”

Seconds went by before the oncoming rumble of Lindsay’s jet was heard, engines roaring as it sped at top speed towards its target. In the blink of an eye she swept past, missiles raining down a trail of fire. The booming sound of explosions were heard even over the steady hum of the helicopter, the sound soon joined by the Lads cheers as they watched the explosion burn bright in the night sky before dwindling down. Only two of the original six buildings remained standing, the other four turned to burning rubble and the surrounding trees had ignited, the fire a bright beacon in the night. Geoff let out his own cheer, the light of the fire illuminated his face as he watched the morons who he had briefly called his enemies burn. 

“Geoff,” Jack reminded him tensely.

With eyes unable to tear themselves away from the sight in front of him, Geoff sighed heavily. 

“Alright, alright. Get us out of here, Matt.”

Satisfied, Jack brought his attention back down to the girl in front of him. He had been able to wrap up and sterilize a few of the worst cuts, the clean bandages standing out brightly against her grubby skin, but Jack was at a loss for what to do. He didn’t have anything to properly brace her broken leg with and the bruises at her ribs concerned him but her breathing didn’t sound labored so they would have to be left alone until Caleb could get a look at her. Discouraged, Jack packed away what was left of the first aid kit before grabbing a bottle of water from the small cooler tucked under the Lads seats, glad to see it wasn’t filled only with beer like last time, and settled in to spend the rest of the flight pouring small sips of water carefully down the girl’s throat. Or he tried to rather, their flight becoming rougher and rougher the closer they got back to base. One particularly sharp drop caused Jack to pour a good amount of water on himself and her face rather than actually in her mouth. 

“Hey!” Jack called up to Matt. “Watch it!” 

“Sorry, man, wind is picking up. We’ll be back at base in ten but you guys are gonna have to stick around for a bit. I don’t like how dark these clouds are looking. ”

Jack used the sleeve of his shirt to gently wipe the water off of her face, dirt coming off with each wipe, and promptly froze as the girl’s closed eyelids twitched at his touch. Jack held his breath as slowly, very slowly, the girl's eyes opened, squinting up at him before darting around the cabin nervously.

“Hey, it’s okay! You’re okay!” Jack said gently. “You’re safe.” He held up the half empty water bottle up to her and when she didn’t make a move to pull away he helped pour another small sip for her. 

“Th-thank…” 

“Shh, it’s fine. Can you tell me your name?”

The girl’s eyes seemed to look past him for a moment, lost in something only she could see as her mouth opened and shut uselessly. Very carefully Jack reached out and placed a hand on her face, ignoring how she flinched away and softly brushed his thumb over her cheek.

“Hey, you’re okay. You’re okay.” 

Gradually her eyes seemed to focus back on him again but it was another few moments of swallowing hard before she could speak again.

“Valerie,” she said finally, her voice carrying something that sounded almost like relief in it. “My name is Valerie.”

“Valerie. You’re safe now, Valerie. You’re gonna be alright.”

The smallest of smiles graced her lips, and she tried to nod but already it was clear to see her exhaustion was pulling her back under, eyes struggling to stay open. For the first time in what felt like months, Valerie let herself drift off feeling protected, motor blades a pleasant hum in her ears and enjoyed the small but welcomed comfort of a hand brush gently against her hair.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Hi! This is my very first fanfic of any kind so I would love some feedback or any comments that you would like to make. I'll be posting regularly so please stay tuned for more to come!


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